Jedd Fisch is ‘cautiously optimistic’ about Wildcats, opener after positive offseason

So why, then, is Fisch feeling “cautiously optimistic” about his team heading into Saturday’s opener at San Diego State?

Aside from the overall infusion of talent, Arizona has two things going for it that it didn’t have a year ago: staff continuity and quarterback certainty.

Heading into last season, the Wildcats had only one coach, Chuck Cecil, who had been a member of the previous staff. Cecil mainly had been an off-field analyst since returning to his alma mater before Fisch named the defensive backs coach in charge of safeties.

This year, Arizona has only two new coaches: Johnny Nansen, the defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach, and Jason Kaufusi, who’s tutoring the outside linebackers and other edge rushers.

“We’re about 90% together as a coaching staff,” Fisch said Monday. “So we’re a little more familiar with one another. We feel good about that part of it.”

Fisch also has good vibes about the Wildcats’ QB situation. A year ago, he named Gunner Cruz the starter for the opener against BYU — while also saying that Will Plummer would play (which he did, albeit only briefly). The depth chart was never truly settled until Fisch ran out of options because of injuries.

This year, transfer Jayden de Laura has taken the vast majority of the first-team reps since the second week of spring practice. He’s the undisputed starter.

De Laura’s presence and résumé — he started almost every game at Washington State the past two seasons and was named Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year in 2021 — provide confidence to the locker room and the “third floor,” Fisch said. That’s where Fisch and his staff work at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility.

Fisch said he and the offensive coaches have made a concerted effort to tweak the offense to suit de Laura’s skill set. That gives the staff the “ability to focus in on what that guy does best, rather than try to figure out what each guy does different and then what they can do well,” Fisch said during camp.

He put it this way Monday: “We’ve tried to set our schematics and our X’s and O’s up for his success.”

What might that mean? Fisch said during camp that Arizona likely would operate out of the shotgun a little more. The Wildcats were in the gun about 68% of the time last season, Fisch said. De Laura operated almost exclusively out of the shotgun at WSU.

De Laura also offers plus mobility and is capable of making plays outside the pocket. Fisch doesn’t want to restrict him. But he also wants de Laura to take full advantage of the skill-position talent that’s been assembled around him.

“If he goes out there and trusts the guys around him, believes in the other 10 like he’s shown ... the last couple of weeks of training camp for sure, we feel a lot better about having Jayden back there as a team,” Fisch said. “We feel very good about having him be our leader.”

To that end, de Laura was voted one of five team captains for the 2022 season. The others are cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace, safety Christian Young, defensive end Jalen Harris and offensive tackle Jordan Morgan. De Laura is the only newcomer in that group.

Brown out

Arizona defensive lineman JB Brown is expected to miss the 2022 season because of a shoulder injury.

Brown was entering his “super senior” campaign with the Wildcats. He was slated to be part of the D-line rotation thanks to his experience and ability to play inside and outside.

Brown played in the first four games in 2021 before sitting out the rest of the season for undisclosed reasons, preserving a redshirt year. He opted out of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

For his UA career, which began in 2017, Brown has appeared in 32 games and made 17 starts. He has 61 tackles and 6.5 sacks.

Fisch mentioned five interior linemen who are atop the depth chart heading into the opener Saturday at San Diego State: Kyon Barrs, Tiaoalii Savea, Paris Shand, Dion Wilson Jr. and Jacob Kongaika.

Fisch said Savea (undisclosed) should be available against the Aztecs after missing the latter portion of training camp.

Elsewhere on the injury front, Fisch said he is hopeful cornerback Treydan Stukes (lower body) will be able to play. Stukes got hurt Aug. 8 and missed the rest of camp.

60 minutes (of football)

Arizona’s opener will air on CBS. Not CBS Sports Network. We’re talking “Big CBS,” in the coveted 3:30 p.m. ET (12:30 in Tucson) time slot.

CBS is even utilizing its No. 1 broadcast team of Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and Jenny Dell, the trio who will call SEC games this season and, presumably, Big Ten games in the future.

It seems like a perfect opportunity for the Wildcats to make a national imprint — the sort of thing that usually would appeal to Fisch’s marketing sensibilities. But he’s so focused on getting his team ready that he’s barely paid it any mind.

“I don’t think too much about that actually,” Fisch said. “Our team needs to just go out there and play football, believe in what we’ve asked them to do, trust the process of preparation, recognize that this is the first day of the build. We’re going to just do everything we possibly can to play our best game on Saturday regardless of who’s watching.”

Extra points

Fisch said he expects 7-10 true freshmen to play against San Diego State.

This isn’t the first time Fisch has faced quarterback Braxton Burmeister. Burmeister played as a true freshman for Oregon in 2017, including the Oct. 21 game against UCLA. Fisch was the Bruins’ offensive coordinator and QB coach at the time.

The consensus at VegasInsider.com has SDSU as a 6.5-point favorite with an over/under of 47. The Aztecs won last year’s matchup 38-14 in Tucson. The Wildcats were favored by 1.5 points at kickoff.